Entries tagged with wtfbbq!

Cripes is it ever hot out. Yes, it get's hot in the Yukon. Keep in mind, we have much much longer days than you in the summer (although we're losing 7 minutes of daylight a day), and it just sort of circles around most of the sky. Really disorienting to see the sun in the northern sky.

But I digress (as usual); it's bloody hot. I decided to come out on the patio to work on my laptop, and it's only been like, 30 seconds and I'm dying. The laptop is already almost too hot to touch and I'm vaguely worried about it overheating. I brought out coffee and chocolate digestives for a snack, but I can't bring myself to touch the coffee and the chocolate is melting. Like, dripping chocolate everywhere, and I've not even been out here 5 minutes.

I'm probably burning. In fact, my left shoulder and arm are already looking pinker than the other side.

So, I'm thinking of starting up another blog. Yes I know, another blog Heather? You barely update this one and haven't touched your sewing blog since May. But I sort of want to do something Yukon and geology based, one that I don't mind a lot of people visiting and poking through. I don't mind the few people here that reads this journal, but this is very much my personal journal (even if all posts are public), and I'd like to reach a larger audience.

If there's actually interest in my Yukon experience, and posts about geology stuff. I'd really like to do an ongoing series on explaining pebbles, what they're made of and how they form. Because who hasn't picked pebbles along a shoreline before.

I like the idea of having an area dedicated to my Yukon experience, and I don't think LJ and DW is really the platform for it. And also, I miss rocks! I miss looking at rocks and figuring out what they're made of and how they formed, and I think sharing it in blog format would help me get my head back into it. I don't know, is this a dumb idea? Am I just setting myself up for failure? I'm not a writer, not at all, so what makes me think I can keep up with THREE blogs?! *headdesk*

It's 11:30 pm, and the sun has JUST passed behind a mountain. I'm sure it'll be out from behind it in a couple hours. THE SUN DOESN'T ACTUALLY SET HERE, JUST HIDES BEHIND MOUNTAINS FOR A BIT BEFORE PEEK-A-BOOING OUT AGAIN OMG SO CONFUSED.

I'm not entirely certain what to say about this, mostly because I've been taught that if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. I often fail at this, but when it comes to respecting other people's beliefs, I try to stick to it.

But as a scientist and a geologist, I just boggle at this.

Apparently some theobiologist from a fellowship university in the States is planning an expedition to locate and capture some pterosaurs to prove us "disreputable evolutionist" wrong. Because apparently we've been "tricking the public into falsely believing that the Earth is billions of years old and that many animals which lived side-by-side with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden actually died millions of years before humans were created (or "evolved" in [our] twisted view.) By finding and displaying living examples of what the Evolutionists claim is impossible, [they] will sow the seeds of Evolutionism doubt, thereby making the public receptive to the truth of the Bible."

This is going to be like those "the world will end on precisely this date and on this time" sort of this, where you know that it's not going to happen, but just sit back to watch the train wreck happen and boggle at the people who genuinely believe in this crap. And you'd think after a while people would stop falling for it, but of course there's always an excuse why they were wrong anyways.

But anyways, my reaction can be summed up with three little letters: WTF?!

Here's a note and a handy flowchart, brought to us by the HR department of the Death Star, on how to deal with impending planetary doom. I personally will probably follow either the 'I'm a [wo]man of science' and the 'this is bullshit' route, or the 'panic' --> 'sit in shower rocking back and forther' route, both of which leads to zombification, but that's fine. As long as I have some coffee, I'm alright with that.

Honestly, I wouldn't normally make fun of someone else's beliefs, but I just can't take this seriously when someone tells me that only a special group of people will be saved and everyone else in the world who don't follow their special set of beliefs will suffer and die. Way to try to threaten people into your religion. This just means people will take Christianity even less seriously. Good job there, Camping.

On the other hand, if the world does 'end today' (although I think they're saying the world will actually be destroyed October 21st), that just means I don't have to submit my thesis on Tuesday!

On that note, I'll leave you with one of my all-time favourite songs. While I like the Great Big Sea version better, the REM video is nicely appropriate.

Don't worry, it's work safe, the porny bits are not shown. I don't even have words to describe this (besides fucken hilarious), but as bigbigtruck says in her link to it, THIS IS WHAT THE INTERNET WAS MADE FOR. homg.

My supervisor is not amusing when she: 1) doesn't show up for a scheduled meeting,2) leaves a sticky note on the door telling me she won't be in today, and 3) doesn't bother emailing me about it.

I probably wouldn't mind so much if I normally work on campus, but the fact that I don't and came in just for this meeting annoys the crap out of me. Plus I really needed to discuss the coming months with her. Oh well, this just means she gets no say in my decision to move across the country before I'm finished my thesis.

In other news, TV commercials really annoy me. Well, the things being peddled do. For instance, Minute Rice Ready to Serve Cups? Sure, let's package a small portion of rice in a disposable plastic cup sold in 2 cup packages wrapped in cardboard. Then all you have to do is microwave the little cup for one minute, pop the rice onto a plate and enjoy. Oh, and throw out that little plastic cup. No don't worry about it, garbage just magically disappears.

Man, I hate our disposable society. How bloody short sighted can we be?

The other commercial that I noticed was for Christmas Rice Krispies. Can we please get past Halloween at least, before you start shoving Christmas down our throats?

*grumpy Heather is grumpy* Well, not really. I'm just taking the evening off and watching TV. :) I never realized how much I hate both the products being sold and how they sell them. OMG GERMS KILL THEM ALL EVERYTHING MUST BE EASY DON'T TAKE MORE THAN 3 MINUTES TO MAKE SUPPER THIS PRODUCT WILL MAKE YOU SO POPULAR AND SEXY AND SUCCESSFUL.

Oh, one final other other news, mostly so I have a record of it. There's something wrong with the outside corner of my left eye. It was really dry this afternoon, and I thought something was in it. But now the upper lid feels swollen, and it hurts a bit to blink. :( If it's still hurting tomorrow, I'll head down to the clinic. I'm off to Denver next week for a conference, and I don't need to worry about an eye problem.

Here I am, sitting nicely at my kitchen table working on thesis stuff, and movement at my kitchen window makes me look up, right into the giant green eyes of a creepy black cat staring at me. I almost fell out of my chair in surprise, and it wasn't until I yelled at the creeper that it took off.

*tries to calm her racing heart*

Now I'm all paranoid and keep looking at the window to see if it's back. Maybe it's time to close the blinds.

ETA: I went to go lie down for a half hour after the Cat Incident, and just woke up, 1.5 hours later. I blame the cat.

I think plate tectonics shifted us around when no one was looking, because I think it's moved southern Ontario to places usually reserved for tropical forests. When I left the house this morning, it was 24 C and 90% humidity WTF?! And it's supposed to go up to 36 C or something?

Please let me off this ride. This prairie girl wants her nice dry Manitoba back. It may get hot, but at least it's a dry heat, and I can always go down to the lake to cool off. Cripes.

So I was happily minding my own business, playing on the SEM (scanning electron microscope) at the GSC (Geological Survey of Canada) in Ottawa for research purposes, when THE ENTIRE BUILDING STARTS SHAKING AND ROCKING. I, being from Manitoba, aka the most seismically stable place on the planet (not shitting you, it really is), sat there like a deer in the headlights going 'omg this isn't happening CRIPES THE CEILING IS CRACKING' before the other geo I was with shouted "EARTHQUAKE!!!!111" with glee and bolted for the doorway, and I followed because that's what they do in the movies.

And then the entire GSC got evacuated out of the building, and 200 bitterly disgruntled geologists sat on the steps and watched updates on the Canadian earthquake from the USGS (United States Geological Survey). Security had a bitch of a time getting the geophysicists to get out.